Eureka!

No More Moore? Not So Fast

A corkscrew-shaped micro-laser, developed by UB engineers, is a big deal for the future of computing

A tiny, light-based communication tool carries digital
information in a swift, swirling motion, like a cyclone.

The optics advancement, described in a study published in the
journal Science this past July, could become a central
component of next-generation computers designed to handle our
growing demand for data and our increasing need for
speed.

It may also bring relief to those fretting over the feared end
of Moore’s Law, a prediction from within the computing
industry that the processing power of computers will double every
couple of years.

“We need to rethink what’s inside of these
machines—in other words, how computers operate—to
ensure we can meet the future demands for data,” says Liang
Feng, assistant professor of electrical engineering at UB and the
study’s co-lead author along with UB Professor of Electrical
Engineering Natalia M. Litchinitser.

For decades, researchers have been able to cram more and more
components onto silicon-based computer chips. Their success
explains why today’s smartphones have more computing power
than the world’s most powerful computers of the 1980s, which
cost millions in current dollars and were the size of a large file
cabinet.

But many within the industry have expressed concern that this
streak of continuous improvement is set to hit a roadblock,
possibly within the next five years, as traditional technology
nears its limits. An end to Moore’s Law could derail the
dissemination of data-intensive innovations like personalized
medicine and driverless cars to the masses.

Researchers have been experimenting with a range of approaches
to fend off that end, including optical communications, which uses
light to carry information. Examples of optical communications vary
from old lighthouses to modern fiber optic cables used to
watch television and browse the internet.

A laser beam that travels in a corkscrew pattern can carry 10 times or more the amount of information than conventional lasers.

Lasers form a central part of today’s optical
communication systems, and so researchers have been manipulating
lasers in various ways, most commonly by funneling different
signals into one path to carry more information. But these
techniques (known as wavelength-division multiplexing and
time-division multiplexing) are also reaching their
limits.

The UB-led research team is pushing laser technology forward
using another light-manipulation technique. Called orbital angular
momentum, it plies a laser beam into a corkscrew formation with a
vortex at the center. With information encoded into its many twists
and turns, a vortex laser can carry 10 times or more the amount of
data than can be contained in a conventional laser’s linear
path.

Vortex lasers are nothing new, but until now, they’ve been
too large to work with today’s computers. The UB-led
team’s innovation, supported by grants from the U.S. Army
Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National
Science Foundation, was to shrink the vortex laser to the point
where it is compatible with computer chips. The technological
breakthrough is the result of two years of work inside clean rooms
and laboratories in Davis Hall and elsewhere, and has been
generating headlines worldwide.

The vortex laser is still in the research stage and is just one
component of many, such as advanced transmitters and receivers,
that will be needed to continue building more powerful computers
and datacenters.

And so, inside Davis Hall, the work continues. For outside, the
need for more computing power never slows.